


Voyager Valley

by Bizarra



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M, From a Manip, Heavy Angst, I Kept Staring At The Manip And This Happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:47:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24047668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bizarra/pseuds/Bizarra
Summary: Some stories are are worth telling.
Relationships: Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway
Comments: 12
Kudos: 36





	Voyager Valley

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to Areneth for making the manip that I used and for the inspiration it brought. I need a happier hug next time, I guess. LOL
> 
> I'm sorry this is the story that your beautful manip gave me. ;)

Inspired by this fabulous manip by Carter-SG-1  


The sky was as dark and foreboding as her mood. The planet, Kelara III, was much like any other sparsely populated, barely green, rocky world they’d visited in the thirteen years Voyager has been meandering through the Delta Quadrant. This time was different though. Much different. Devastatingly different.

Kathryn walked along the shoreline, carefully stepping over the large boulders. She began to climb the steep incline. She closed her eyes briefly as pain wound its way through her chest. She had no idea how she would get past this unimaginable loss. She felt as though a limb were missing; no, half her body.

She finally cleared the rise and stood at the top of the cliff. To her right, the vast sea, it’s now calm waters belied a deadly raging current. She shielded her brow from the emerging sun to seek any signs of escape pods still bobbing along. None. There were none. Her legs collapsed, and she dropped to the hard ground as finally, finally her emotions released.

Gone. They were all gone. The only proof that they had once been there was the broken hull of their ship, littered across the floor of the valley to her left. The largest piece of debris, the upper part of the saucer, that included the bridge lay among the forest it had demolished as it skidded to a final resting place. That the Bridge survived — that she survived — will haunt her for the rest of her days.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The captain goes down with the ship. She’d insisted on staying behind; on trying desperately to keep the inevitable from happening. He had tried to stay with her. They’d argued. She insisted that he go to a pod. Take their crew; their family and go. Survive. Make sure everyone would be accounted for and safe.

She wasn’t supposed to be the only one to live. Her anguished cries echoed off the rocks, through the trees, and over the valley. 

The sun had set, risen, and set many times since she’d first reached the top of the cliff. The days had blended together so much that Kathryn had no idea exactly how long she sat, staring at the duranium skeleton that was once her beautiful ship. She was beyond hungry, beyond thirsty, but had no real urge to satisfy either need. She assumed that she would die here, on this vantage point where she could see every one of her sins.

Escape pods were washing ashore. She’d gotten excited when she saw the first one on the beach when she’d awoken one sunrise. But her elation quickly muted when she realized that something had cracked the pod in a way that would have allowed the water to rush in and drown its occupants. She’d cried again, then. That had been the last time any sort of emotion had moved within her.

As more and more broken pods showed up, she stayed rooted, refusing to go down there and find nothing but the distended and rotting bodies of her friends and loved ones. And so she stayed; watching over her ship, and slowly fading away.

The heat had become unbearable on this empty day like all the others. She stripped down to her tank, her underwear; her hair unkempt and matted. Who would see her? Who would care? No one. No one would ever again care about her appearance. Maybe today would be the day she finally ceased to exist. Maybe today. Hopefully today.

And so she sat, waiting for the sun to burn her away, She turned her face upward toward the flames, toward her Hell. “Take me, please!” She yelled into the air. “I don’t want to exist anymore!” She'd thrown herself off the cliff days ago, but, she laughed emptily, she didn’t have the energy.

The sun set and rose again. And still she lived. She lay now, all hope gone. Kathryn’s skin was parched, burnt, and starting to crack. Moving was painful. She lay on her side watched as animals got curious about the large hunk of metal that had reshaped their forest. Her lips quirked in a weak smile. Voyager was coming back to life; sheltering a new kind of crew. At that thought she laughed. A cackling laugh that gave way to keening cries.

She heard a snap behind her and silenced. Rustling that could almost be footsteps came closer, faster. Stronger. Probably an animal of some sort. Maybe if she was lucky, it would get curious enough to push her over the edge. 

It said her name. She snorted a laugh and rolled her eyes. Now she the sun had baked her brain. The animals were talking. Absently, she wondered if that meant she was finally, mercifully close to death. Perhaps she already was, and that was why the animals were saying her name.

She felt it now behind her. However it killed her, she hoped it was quick. To her surprise, it said her name again, softly. Tentatively. And the voice it spoke in so utterly, beautifully, familiar. But it couldn’t be. He died when debris from the shattering hull slammed into his pod. The pod she was supposed to have been on. If she’d let him lead her off the bridge.

She felt herself being pulled into the animal. No, not an animal. A person. Perhaps one of the natives found her. She struggled. She didn’t want to be taken from here. She wanted to die overlooking her failure. Her guilt. The voice shushed her gently, soothing her cries. She was turned, and she finally saw the animal. The native. No. 

“You can’t be here.” She nearly choked on her own voice. Her throat was so dry, she had no saliva left. “You died. I saw.” She stilled, then looked into his deep brown eyes, lifted her hand to caress his face. “Have I finally died?”

His agonized groan reverberated through her body as he gripped her. “I finally found you.” He lifted her to his lap and pulled her against him. He was rock solid, and he smelled like home.

“Are you real?” She cried. “I’m not imagining you? You haven’t come in a vision to take me to the afterlife?”

“I’m real Kathryn.” He held her tightly, and she buried her face into the crook of his neck. “I’m real, I’m alive, and I’m so glad I found you.”

Her hands were all over him, feeling him, assuring her he was really there. Kathryn dug one hand into his hair, the other clutched the back of his shirt. “I’m not alone.” She cried against his skin. “I’m not alone.”

He picked her up as he stood and balanced her across his arms. He turned and began walking down the cliff, careful to not fall over the loose rocks. She never looked over his shoulder at the empty husk that was once their home. She now held her home, tightly. She would never let it go again.

The sun rose as it had every morning. But the woman on the cliff never saw it for she had breathed her last breath on a single name.

“Is that why the cliff is called Chakotay’s Rise, Father?” The earnest little girl asked.

The man nodded. “Yes it is, Thesa.” He looked upon the barely recognizable husk of the crashed starship that created the wildlife sanctuary that he and his tribe have protected for centuries. “I think your mother will have dinner ready soon.”

“Will you tell me more stories before bed, Papa?”

“Maybe I’ll tell you about the red-haired girl who came from the sea.” Phren drew his fingers down the line of bumps on his ten-year-old daughter’s forehead. Perhaps it was time to tell his daughter the stories of her ancestors and of the young girl with horns who was the sole survivor from the ship in what they call Voyager Valley.


End file.
